by Marc Mickelson, March 12, 2014 © www.theaudiobeat.com
Transcription
by Marc Mickelson, March 12, 2014 © www.theaudiobeat.com
VTL Siegfried Series II Reference Mono Amplifiers by Marc Mickelson, March 12, 2014 © www.theaudiobeat.com E very maker of audio equipment has a philosophy for creating a product line that takes into account the introduction of new models as well as the upgrade of existing ones. Some companies follow a well-established script that’s based mostly on time. Every x number of years -- often three, sometimes five -- the company will introduce a new model to replace an existing one. The rationale here is easy to understand, even without a business degree: new products mean new sales, and sales are why manufacturers are in business. be released. Instead of adhering to a schedule, this manufacturer will be more engaged in, well, manufacturing. Existing products will have to continue to entice customers, and the introduction of new products will be true events, driven by discovery instead of purely economic considerations. VTL does things this second way. Its product line, comprising amplifiers, preamplifiers and phono stages at various price levels, is vast, ensuring that all market segments are covered and expanding the company’s reach to customers. This is all part of the strategy, and it has some built-in advantages for VTL customers. A purchase today doesn’t start the clock ticking, with a replacement expected at some regular interval in the But this isn’t the only way for a manufacturer to crack this particular nut. Some simply let the pace of their own R&D determine when a new product will 1 D PRODUCE RE FROM near future. Value is ensured, and customers are more loyal to the brand, because the brand is loyal to them. th om upon it sufficiently to warrant a replacement. Whereas the input of the original Siegfried was au d io b e a t. c balanced, the Series II goes a giant step further, incorporating a fully balanced differential circuit Probably the most extreme example of this goes all from input to output, “for improved isolation from the way back to 1998, when VTL head Luke Manley and noise interference, internal or external,” in Luke Manley’s his team of engineers set about creating the company’s words. VTL could have stopped with just this alone; a fully Reference line of products, which led directly to the balanced circuit is no plug’n’play affair. But also new is a TL-7.5 preamp and the Siegfried monoblocks. The TL-7.5’s shorter, faster fully balanced feedback loop to improve a circuit was updated to Series II status in 2006 and then to condition with the original amp that caused slight ringing Series III, , in 2010. In contrast, the Siegfried went without when driven hard. An output transformer that’s “more significant change from its debut around 2000 all the way heavily interleaved and sectioned” and Teflon bypass caps to late 2011, when the Series II appeared. in all power supplies are also new, along with 12BH7 driver tubes, which As with the TL-7.5, replace the 6350s in the latest Siegfried the original amp. The has undergone not so Siegfried II also has much an upgrade as no global feedback. a rethinking. While the amp looks and A new feature was functions as it always also introduced with has, uses the same Series II: adjustable output tubes and damping factor. This produces the same varies the amps’ amount of power, the negative feedback circuit has changed and thereby the in ways that are input sensitivity and fundamental to the output impedance. amp’s current sonic In theory, it increases character. the amps’ ability to control the woofers of The original Siegfried the speakers they’re was anything but driving. In practice, unrefined, featuring it is absolutely vital a dozen parallel to getting the most output tubes from the Siegfried IIs (KT88s or 6550Cs), -- and your speakers. a massive power Four levels -- Low, supply that occupied much of the chassis, low negative Medium, High, and Max -- are available, and from my feedback, point-to-point wiring, a fully balanced experience, using the amps to drive two pairs of Wilson input (and switchable single-ended input), an onboard Audio speakers and one from Venture Audio, one setting microprocessor to manage startup (among other will be considerably better than the others, halving functions), automatic tube biasing and a robust system the difference between bass control and the purity of for sensing and managing faults, most often a matter of a essentially every other part of the sonic spectrum. tube going bad. With both Wilson speakers, Medium worked best, and In other words, the Siegfried was a platform meant to with the Ventures it was the Low setting. I asked Luke exist unchanged for a decade or more, until such time Manley about the settings for other brands of speakers. that Luke Manley and his design team could improve “We have found that generally Medium works well with e 2 D PRODUCE RE FROM th om speakers like the Rockports and Vivids, and a very useful feature, given that the fuses for I could see some people who like solid-state the Siegfried II are industrial ones with solid au d io b e a t. c amps using the High setting, but I don’t know if bodies, so you can’t see when they are blown. anyone would use the Max setting, honestly, as it You can also connect a computer and get a starts to cut into the smooth roll-off in the frequencyreadout of all faults the amplifier has encountered response curve.” Luke also mentioned that some listeners over its lifetime. This is especially useful if for some use different settings for different types of music, which reason VTL needs to diagnose a problem. adds a level of involvement that I personally would want to avoid but some people may appreciate. While the Siegfried II’s circuitry relies on the nearly ancient (in technology terms) vacuum tube, it is a Looking at the Siegfried Series II reveals not an audio thoroughly contemporary piece of electronics, fitting amplifier in the well-established mold but essentially a right in in this high-tech age. I don’t know of an amplifier personal power plant -- 650 watts in tetrode and 330 that monitors its own operation with even half the same watts in triode -- for each speaker. The output tubes rigor. Yet, for the most part, you won’t have to interact and their requisite circuit board occupy the top third of with all of its doodadery unless you choose to. Instead, the sizeable chassis, which is two feet high by two feet you’ll set it and forget it. deep, with the amp’s power supply occupying nearly the entire two-thirds remaining. The back panel is busy with n addition to making use of the advanced connectors, switches, fuse holders and a large heatsink, features and all of that power, owners of the which signals one of the amp’s true innovations: Siegfried IIs will be able to wile away countless precision-regulated plate, screen and bias supplies that hours listening to the two different sets of output tubes keep the operating point of the output tubes constant the amps can accommodate, and the further variation even as the AC power fluctuates, in Luke Manley’s words, of the amps’ tetrode/triode switching will only add to “for greater tonal stability and sonic integrity, especially the intrigue. While some may see all of these choices under complex, dynamic signal conditions.” Unlike other -- four in total for just the base configuration of the amp tube amps, even extremely powerful ones, the Siegfried II -- as being more subtractive to the experience of listening doesn’t have output taps for different loads. to music than additive to owning the amps, I see them as an opportunity. In all likelihood, Siegfried II owners A tube failure during listening illustrated just how will use the amps with either 6550Cs or KT88s for the intelligent and well protected the Siegfried IIs are. The LED vast bulk of their listening and quickly settle on tetrode display on the face of the amp immediately let me know or triode as well. However, with the push of a button, that a tube had failed, the green LED next to the tube the owner can take a sonic vacation and see how the within the amp’s chassis pointing it out. After swapping the other half lives. And just as some vacations happen close tube, I reset the amp’s fault mechanism, which is behind to home and others around the world, that same owner a removable cover, and the amp was back to business. can swap output tubes and experience another culture, However, as Luke Manley demonstrated when he helped sonically speaking, before heading back to his cozy, install the amps in my system (each weighs 200 pounds familiar existence. and ships in a crate with built-in shock absorbers, so help is necessary), the Siegfried II would continue to operate But enough with the analogizing. Here are some even with a dead tube. The amp shuts down the partnering specifics. For almost all of the time I had the Siegfried IIs tube and then merrily rolls along, the front panel, not a in my system, I listened with 6550C tubes and in tetrode, pause in the music, telling you that something deserving where the Siegfried IIs are able to deliver their full 650 your attention has occurred. watts each -- power that was never completely needed but whose potential certainly had its sonic effects. There are other features hiding behind that removable (Raw power has its own signature quite aside from cover, the ability to keep track of the number of tube anything else an amp achieves.) Unless otherwise hours along with measuring the amp’s operating indicated, the comments I make regarding the sound temperature and the voltage of your AC line among of the Siegfried IIs were derived with the amps outfitted them. Each amp also comes with a built-in fuse tester, and used this way. e I 3 D PRODUCE RE FROM th om But during his initial visit, Luke Manley brought that works with our choice of speaker or simply along a set of KT88s, and I listened to them grope in the sonic dark, hoping that the two will au d io b e a t. c as well as experimented with triode at various couple properly. It is true that any amp, even the points. In general, the KT88s were short of the wrong one, will make sound with essentially any speed and incisiveness of the 6550Cs, although speaker, but our goals as audiophiles are so much for some listeners these will be a reasonable tradeoff. more ambitious than merely making sound, and they put With KT88s, the Siegfried IIs were sweeter and warmer, pressure on our choice of amplifier. If only there were such more midrangey, though less resolute, as thing as a universal amplifier, one whose including in the bass, which was electrical properties, not to mention its softer. Switching the amps to triode, sonic character, were such that it could irrespective of the tubes, effects some drive all speakers and sound magnificent of the same changes, trading leadingdoing so. Imagine a universal combustion edge definition for a fuller, rounder engine, one you could drop into a sports midrange. In most ways, the choice car for racing or into a truck for pulling of output tubes and operating mode a yacht over a mountain. It would was rather like that for the damping have to be built for both utmost speed factor: I definitely preferred one and torque, seemingly connected combination, even though it was not qualities but in so many ways mutually unquestionably better in every way exclusive. -- a microcosm of high-end audio in general. We often consider solid-state amps as being the most widely applicable, Regarding preamps, a distinguished able to drive the most speakers in the collection of which I had on hand, most satisfying way. They possess the it will probably come as no surprise torque but not the speed, so to speak, that the best of those I used with the while so many tube amps come at the Siegfried IIs, no matter the amps’ issue from the other direction, having output tubes or operating mode, the speed but not the torque. was from VTL, the TL-7.5 Series III. Putting aside the more obvious The Siegfried II is an altogether qualities like tonal consistency, with uncommon amplifier. Its multifaceted the TL-7.5 III, the amps just seemed regulation and parallel output devices to be more themselves: enormously ensure constant delivery of a massive authoritative or acutely focused, amount of power under any conditions depending on the recording, each and the low output impedance required of which sounded better resolved to cope with the vagaries of the load and more distinct. Bass had greater that a wide array of speakers present -texture and weight, and transients from steep phase angles to drops below were a touch more swift and defined. 2 ohms. But perhaps more pertinent, the That the two products grew out of the same design work Siegfried IIs deliver music with detail, suppleness, authority seems evident when you hear them together. and finesse -- from top to bottom, no matter the speakers with which they are used. f all the interfaces in an audio system, those points where one component connects to In fact, listening to them required a bit of assimilation, another and the musical circle remains especially as I threw recordings of varied music in different unbroken, none is more critical to the sonic outcome formats at them. When the amps first arrived, I had just than that between the speaker and amplifier. It is where finished my review of the Wilson Alexandria XLFs, and electrical energy becomes acoustic energy -- where the the speakers were still in my system. The XLFs may be signal becomes music. We therefore must choose an amp large and heavy, but they have the heart of an easy-toe O 4 D PRODUCE RE FROM th om drive minimonitor. Their load and sensitivity certainly convinced any doubters. For all of their presented no problems for any amp I used, might, the Siegfried IIs treated this truly intimate au d io b e a t. c including a budget-priced TEAC integrated amp set with a gentle touch, conveying all of its that I put into service for a couple of days, just for spooky imaging and ambience, Burnside and his my own edification. With the XLFs, the Siegfried IIs guitar positively locked dead center. It is impossible, I were capable of near-PA volume levels and bass power think, for any amplifier to make this recording sound bad, that seemed to emanate from the core of the earth, yet but they don’t all bring it to its fullest expression -- and this when I played far less demanding recordings, the amps music is all about expression. The Siegfried IIs maximized -- and speakers -- shape-shifted, presenting mono jazz or the poignancy of Burnside’s singing and playing by folk with ghostly focus and see-within transparency, all of revealing every detail the recording had to offer, but doing those tubes and drivers sounding positively demure in the so with natural pacing and placement. “None better,” said process. I already knew about my listening notes; if I wasn’t aiming for this ability of the speakers, understatement, I had certainly but I didn’t understand its full achieved it. extent until the Siegfried IIs were doing the driving. Tonality was squarely in the tradition of tubes with the I’m not talking merely about Siegfried IIs: rife with color scale here -- the ability to and density, the things that sound big with orchestral help recorded voices and music or intimate with solo instruments sound more guitar, for instance -- although human, more real. This is that is surely part of it. It is something tubes generally instead a complex of qualities do well, but the Siegfried so diverse and wide-ranging IIs go beyond well and into as to prove that the Siegfried transcendent territory. Voices IIs were unlike any amp in were always full and vivid, my experience. So, with the instruments rich in timbre, their Telarc SACD of Copland and tonality remaining individual Hindemith music [Telarc SACDand true no matter the 60648] or Keith Richards’ Main demands of the recording. The Offender CD [Virgin V2-86499], amps are so convincing when I needed to buckle up for a ride it comes to reconstructing on massive waves of power, the tam-tam the scale of each recording, strikes from “Fanfare for the Common Man” both big and small, that the slicing through the air with the same laserdense images were never sonic like precision as the drum strikes of “Wicked As It dead ends, existing only for their own Seems” from Main Offender. As I leaned on the volume, sake. The massive power available never overwhelmed, everything just got louder and more rowdy, especially remaining in reserve until the music pushed past those first Richards’ blazing guitar work, the sense of liveness, of glorious watts and more were needed. sitting in the concert hall or standing near the PA stack, becoming more apparent. Again, while it seemed a pity with such powerful amps, I played (overplayed) mono recordings with the Siegfried But the silly fun came in the juxtaposition of those discs IIs, from early ‘50s original LPs to reissues of music from with R.L. Burnside’s First Recordings [Mobile Fidelity the same era. Finding great music on LP for almost nothing UDSACD 2026]. I’m sure there was some head-scratching allows no-risk experimentation. In this spirit, I will grab when Mobile Fidelity announced that this set of mono any mono Columbia jazz LP, no matter the performer. This demo recordings from the late 1960s was up for reissue is how I discovered Calvin Jackson, a classically trained on SACD, but its otherworldly immediacy and presence pianist who recorded two LPs on Columbia in the mide 5 D PRODUCE RE FROM th om 1950s: The Calvin Jackson Quartet [Columbia Opus MM2: CL 756] and Rave Notice [Columbia CL 824]. au an inconvenient truth d io b e a t. c If you want to hear them, you have one choice only: the original LPs. Neither has come to CD or Luke Manley wanted me to hear his top-of-thebeen reissued on LP, and it seems unlikely that this line electronics with an equally top-of-the-line set will change, given Jackson’s obscurity: he made his final of interconnects and speaker cables, reasoning that recordings in 1961, but he lived for more than two decades I would only hear what the system assembled in my after that. I absolutely love listening to such lost music -listening room was capable of with cables that were lost to digital, that is. With the Siegfried IIs, Jackson’s piano equally all-encompassing and no-compromise. I was rang with life during his 15-minute explication of “Love willing to oblige, even if I was less than enthusiastic. Me or Leave Me,” the Siegfried IIs revealing the recording’s When you move as much equipment into and out slight dryness and the closed-in quality of the venue. I find of your system as I do, you become impatient at the that piano in particular is well served on these older mono prospect of even more gear swapping, each new recordings, perhaps because early stereo miking led to the variable making the work of reviewing the product at instrument sounding misshaped, the channels rarely able to hand increasingly agonizing and difficult. mix properly. If Calvin Jackson piques your interest, other lost Columbia jazz pianists whose work you should seek Luke was especially partial to Nordost Odin and out are Enrique Villegas and John Eaton. As with Calvin Transparent Opus MM2, and, to make things easy, Jackson, you won’t hear them unless you find the LPs. he was willing to send VTL’s own set of either cables. With Nordost’s Valhalla 2 coming (a full set of which Before the Alexandria XLFs were packed up, Wilson Audio I now have; review forthcoming), I didn’t want to shipped me a Thor’s Hammer subwoofer. Knowing this, muddy the waters with Odin, so I chose Transparent. Luke Manley sent a third Siegfried II with which to drive At one point, my system included a Wilson Audio it, throwing down the gauntlet vis-à-vis the kind of amp Thor’s Hammer subwoofer and its associated -- tube or solid state -- that was appropriate for use with electronics, including a third VTL Siegfried II amp, so a subwoofer, not to mention a subwoofer like the Thor’s I needed an extra balanced interconnect and a single Hammer. As they have done in the past, John Giolas run of speaker cable, along with an extra pair of and Trent Workman of Wilson Audio visited to uncrate balanced interconnects for digital. Transparent kindly everything and set it all up, including the third Siegfried II, augmented where necessary. which led to a cracked ceramic tile in the entryway of my house, confirming the amp’s weight, I suppose. Transparent Audio cables are a universe removed from the “one cable fits all” model. Opus MM2 Once again, juxtaposed with the mono jazz I was listening interconnects ($11,580 per one-meter single-ended to in copious amounts, the system as it was assembled, pair, $20,000 per one-meter balanced pair) and with a refrigerator-sized subwoofer in the corner, was truly speaker cables ($34,735 per eight-foot pair) are dazzling in its ability to unearth previously unrealized low tailored to the electronics with which they will be frequencies, and the third Siegfried II made the case that used. This happens within each cable’s network. it -- and tubes in general -- absolutely can do low bass. I Essentially a filter circuit comprised of specially already knew this from the amps’ depth and control with chosen parts, the network optimizes the electrical the XLFs, although the Siegfried II/Thor’s Hammer upgrade characteristics inherent in the construction and went to far beyond the XLFs alone, revealing the hidden length of the cable as well as the point in the throbs on “Diver Boy” from Natalie Merchant’s The House system where it will be used. It also combats noise Carpenter’s Daughter CD [Myth America MA 1026] and and provides a measure of physical damping. This other recordings. is a cursory rundown of Transparent’s technology, which, at least in my mind, makes sense if you While I’ve heard some well-defined deep bass from accept the notion that the electrical demands of the solid-state amps, including the Luxman B-1000f and signal between one amp and preamp, for instance, Analog Domain Artemis monoblocks, I couldn’t say that are not the same as those between the same amp it was better in overall quality than what the Siegfried IIs e 6 D PRODUCE RE FROM e au and another preamp. I also personally find comfort in the fact that Transparent’s d io b e a t. c technology is not based on vacuous, hopeful theory. From the company’s website: “Every design is carefully calibrated according to Transparent’s listening criteria as observed with longterm listening. . . .” om th delivered. Their control, their grip on the woofers, was awesome in the truest sense of the word: able to invoke a sense of awe when the music had it to give -- with or without the Thor’s Hammer. The Siegfried IIs will go toe to toe with any solid-state amp I’ve heard, even the best of them, offering a little more bounce in the upper bass, for instance, in exchange for a little less slam with the most massive bass transients. The arrival of a full set of Opus MM2 in its shipping cartons is quite a production. Because of the large and heavy network running along each cable’s length, the packing has to be much larger than expected in order to allow ample room for foam inserts that keep everything in place, so the networks aren’t moving around during transit. For speaker cables, this means a shipping box that’s big enough for an enormous amplifier. Unpacking the cables is easy enough, but packing them up is another matter, especially the speaker cables, which are as uncooperative as a moody python. You also have to account for the networks when you put the cables into the system, being sure you have enough space and support for them. The networks for the speaker cables are like components themselves, down to their spiked footers. It will probably come as no surprise that the VTL amps were also dynamically imperturbable, not so much because of their power reserves but rather their intrinsic dynamic range, especially for a tube amp, a quality enhanced by the Transparent cables (see sidebar). A good number of solid-state amps are quieter at the noise floor, but that’s the case compared with any tube design. The Siegfried IIs fly below any noise, revealing the fine details that create the fabric of much acoustic music -- the touch of a pianist like George Winston or a guitarist like Michael Hedges -- as readily as the bombast of amplified rock or large-ensemble jazz. If there was a recording or kind of music that these amps didn’t reveal with seemingly boundless detail and naturalness, I didn’t hear it -- and believe me I tried to find it. In fact, after a certain point in my listening, discovering some way in which the Siegfried IIs fell short became more of the goal than hearing once again that they couldn’t be tripped up. Large-scale music? Check. Intimate mono recordings? Check. The naturalness and tonal glory of tubes? Check. Bass control and power? Check. Dynamic variation? Check. Intimacy? Check. The ability to drive disparate loads? Check. User friendliness and just plain fun? Check and check. The Siegfried IIs proved to be as close to a universal audio engine that I’ve heard and, I’m confident to speculate, exists in high-end audio here and now. All of these inconveniences become a distant afterthought once the Opus MM2 cables are in place and music is playing. The enduring impression I have of them is of presence and composure. Instruments and singers sounded substantial and deeply hued, and backgrounds were intensely, eerily black. If three-dimensional images are one of your audio touchstones, Opus MM2 conjures them like no other cables I’ve heard. Along with this were dynamic variegation and transient speed, neither of which was excessive or showy, just there. The bass power and control that the Opus MM2 cables brought to the presentation were simply state of the art, especially from 200Hz on down. In many ways, they, not the electronics or speakers, defined the low-frequency capabilities of the system. L istening with the Siegfried IIs was a constant revelation, not because, as some reviewers like to say, I heard new things from familiar recordings, but rather because the amps served every recording so well, no matter the music or the sonic qualities. The Siegfried IIs presented music in a complete and elemental way, preserving, even enhancing, its message. Roy Gregory likes to talk about the ways in which audio equipment can make music sound like it’s played by better musicians. The recording is the recording, I’ve always reasoned, and there’s nothing that reproduction can do to improve upon it. But the Siegfried IIs helped me understand Here’s the obligatory admission of high cost: in case you hadn’t noticed, these are expensive cables, really expensive. But then the system in which they were used was really expensive too. Transparent also offers interconnects and speaker cables that cost much less 7 D PRODUCE RE FROM e au About four years ago, shortly after The Audio Beat first appeared, I mentioned in one of my reviews an amplifier top-five list -- a personal tally of the best amps I had heard regardless of price or technology. It caught on and readers asked me for the full list, which I was happy to supply. It has changed some over the years, although it still has an amp on it that I reviewed prior to launching the site: the single-ended Lamm ML3 Signature. Also represented are solid state in form of the Ayre MX-R, push-pull tubes by the Audio Research Reference 250, and output transformerless with the Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk 3.1. than Opus MM2, and they’re built with the same premises and objectives in mind, and d io b e a t. c some of the same conductors, connectors and passive parts. I expect they will sound much as I describe above. om th Roy’s point. With them, musical interplay was tighter and more cohesive, just plain better, no matter the recording. No product segment within audiophilia is more misunderstood and maligned than cables, and that’s doubly true for expensive cables. However, these expensive cables delivered on the implied promise of their considerable cost, readjusting my understanding of what’s possible, not just from interconnects and speaker cables but from reproduction itself. I was reluctant to try the Opus MM2 cables in the first place, but I missed them the moment they were gone. -Marc Mickelson And now at the top of that list sits the VTL Siegfried II. Price: $65,000 per pair. Warranty: Five years parts and labor. Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF and Alexia, Venture Audio Ultimate Reference. VTL 4774 Murrieta Street Unit 10 Chino, CA 91710 Phone (909) 627-5944 Subwoofer: Wilson Audio Thor’s Hammer. Associated Equipment Speaker cables: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature, Nordost Valhalla 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda, Transparent Audio Opus MM2. Interconnects: AudioQuest William E. Low Signature, Nordost Valhalla 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda, Transparent Audio Opus MM2. Analog: TW-Acustic Raven AC turntable; Graham B-44 Phantom Series II Supreme and Tri-Planar Mk VII UII tonearms; Denon DL-103R, Dynavector XV-1t and XV-1s Mono cartridges; Audio Research Reference Phono 2 SE and Lamm Industries LP1 Signature phono stages. Power conditioners: Essential Sound Products The Essence Reference-II, Quantum QB4 and QB8, Quantum Qx4, Shunyata Research Hydra Triton and Typhon. Digital: Ayre Acoustics DX-5 “A/V Engine,” Esoteric K-01 CD/SACD player, CEC TL 1 CD transport, Toshiba Satellite laptop. Power cords: Essential Sound Products The Essence Reference-II and MusicCord-Pro ES, Nordost Valhalla 2 and Frey 2, Shunyata Research Zi-Tron Anaconda. Preamplifiers: Audio Research Reference Anniversary and Reference 10, Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Legend, Lamm Industries LL1 Signature, VTL TL-7.5 Series III Reference. Equipment rack and platforms: Silent Running Audio Craz² 8 equipment rack and Ohio Class XL Plus² platforms (under Lamm M1.2 amps), Harmonic Resolution Systems M3 isolation bases. Power amplifiers: Analog Domain Artemis, Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk 3.1, and Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference monoblocks. Accessories: Gryphon Audio Designs Exorcist system demagnetizer. 8